The of three stages (Play Group, Nursery

The education system of Pakistan is comprised of 260,903 institutions and is facilitating 41,018,384 students with the help of 1,535,461 teachers. It includes 180,846 public institutions and 80,057 private institutions. Hence 31% educational institutes are run by private sector while 69% are public institutes.The standard national system of education is mainly inspired from the British System. Pre-School education is designed for 3-5 years old and usually consists of three stages (Play Group, Nursery and Kindergarten (KG)). After pre-school education, students go through junior school from grade 1 to 5. Only 80% of Pakistani children finish primary school education. After passing grade 5 Examination which is conducted by the Punjab Examination Commission Lahore, students are promoted in to Middle Level ie grade 6 to 8. The language of instruction of subject depends on the nature of the institution itself, whether it is an English medium school or an Urdu medium School. In Pakistan education Government school is the most neglected in terms of financial support from the government side. Government spends the least budget on education which is less than 2 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Due to receiving less financial support, the sector has remained the most under paid and poor in performance.40 per cent of the educational institutions don’t have basic facilities such as electricity, water, guards, toilet and boundary wall. Even worse, they don’t have tables, chairs and even black boards. Private schools charge very high fees affordable only by the economically topmost level of the society, probably no more than five percent of the families, some of whom prefer to send their children to even more exclusive schools in the Western world, notably, Great Britain. Such “public” schools are mostly located in major cities and in the “hill stations” and attract children from the wealthy and the powerful including the higher levels of bureaucracy and the military. They generally prepare students for the Cambridge Examination, maintain excellent facilities including laboratories and computers and highly-trained teachers. Thanks to economic growth of the country including foreign trade, employment in multinationals and according to some, higher levels of corruption, the number of families which can afford the high fees of the “public” schools has been increasing since the 1960s. It is also considered a mark of high status to have one’s children admitted to such schools because of the possibility that it may result in developing contacts which may be useful in their future careers. There are, therefore, tremendous pressures on such schools for admission. There were also “socialistic” pressures. In 1972, following the rise of Zulfikar Bhutto to power, some of these “public” schools were compelled to reserve one-fifth of their places for students on academic merit basis, thus helping the less affluent to get into such schools.The bulk of the secondary schools come under the aegis of the Ministry of Education. They follow a common curriculum, imparting a general education in languages (English and Urdu ), Pakistan Studies, Islamiyat and one of the following groups: Science, “General” or Vocational. The Science group includes Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Biology; the “General” group includes Mathematics or Household Accounts or Home Economics, General Science and two general education courses out of some 40 options. The Vocational group provides choices from a list of commercial, agricultural, industrial or home economics courses. There are also “non-examination” courses such as Physical Exercise of 15-20 minutes daily and Training in Civil Defense, First Aid and Nursing for a minimum of 72 hours during grades 9 and 10. Today, education in Pakistan is for those who can afford the high fees of private schools. Elite class, bureaucrats and high officials are not paying any attention to educate the peasantry. They are retaining education within their circle, that’s why rich are becoming richer and poor are becoming poorer in our society. Private sector should allocate a number of seats for the lower social class to cater them with good quality as well as free education. (piteach.com)Pakistan ranks 189th in the world’s literacy ranking (2011). There are many reasons for low literacy rate in Pakistan such as poverty, population expansion, feudal lords, wadera system, male dominated society and lack of schools in rural areas. Poverty is the biggest disadvantage and the largest resistance in the development of a country. In Pakistan 40% people are living below poverty line.The poor does not have the income to afford education for their children and would, by necessity, keep the latter out of school. The very poor would need to supplement the household income with the earnings of children giving rise to the prevalence of child labor. The very poor would not even have enough to afford the upkeep of their children and be forced to give them up to madrassas providing free care. So in general widespread poverty would have widespread illiteracy. The true reality is that the biggest barrier to poor education in Pakistan is a lack of government interest and powerful feudal system in villages and poor areas. Political influence in education institutions is also a main cause of worse performance of education system in Pakistan. Even public service commission examinations are not transparent and most of results are politically motivated. It seems true that due to increasing education expenditures and self-finance schemes, the government is limiting education only for upper class people. Due to poverty, rising graph of unemployment and tough financial conditions, thousands of children have been forced to leave their education and work in inhuman conditions as a child labourers. Despite huge increase in education expenditures and self-finance schemes, the education system has failed to provide alternatives of Dr Qadeer Khan, Professor Saleem-uz-Zaman Siddiqui and Hakeem Mohammed Saeed.Gender discrimination is very common in Pakistan. People are very conservative and they don’t want their girls to go to school and get education. Due to this, the ratio of boys and girls in primary schools is 10:4. (Pakistan Today)The most important cause of illiteracy is social problems. Education facilities may not be available or school may be too far and too few to get good education. The countryside’s children do have not enough school for studies. Furthermore, they do not have facilities to reach these schools.Another cause of illiteracy is family problems. If their parents are workers, they are also workers. They don’t care about their education. They just learn their working.Finally, the motivation is also a cause of illiteracy. Nowadays, there are a lot of entertainments, which keep the children excited and busy. They spend their time on such activities and don’t care about learning.However, if we can fix these problems, we would have education in our life. Teachers are the key to the success of any education system. However, studies show that in Pakistan, the problems of teachers have multiplied with the passage of time rather than being solved. It seems that no one is paying attention to these problems and resources and energies are wasted on mere improvement of buildings and in the improvement of the curriculum or system developments. There is sense of feeling of extreme alienation among the teaching community because teaching profession is considered the most underpaid and less lucrative and unattractive professional service in Pakistan. Teachers do not enjoy the social respect which is enjoyed by other service men in the country. Teachers get more than fewer salaries in the country. Teachers are unable to lead a decent life within the salary provided to them by the government. This factor has affected the motivation level of teachers. The teachers as a whole do not take active interest in the performance of their duties. This situation has ultimately impacted the whole process of quality in teaching and learning in schools.School principals generally lack the ability of staff coordination. They lack vision which leads them to feeling of superiority over teachers. This trend has led to situation where sometimes skirmishes take place between teacher and principal or verbal war start. The ultimate effects of this situation fall on the students. Even the process of quality of education in the schools is deeply affected The unrealistic working conditions in Pakistani schools have added to teacher burnout. There are no procedures of work in some schools either due to the ignorance of the administration of laps on the part of teachers to find out the procedure of work. In some schools there is lack of teaching staff. This creates more problems for other teachers in the schools who have to teach more classes than their normal routine. In view of Saleem (2002) this situation has increased more pressures on the teachers who become prone to physical discomforts. In this situation the teachers try to cover the syllabus at the cost of the quality in teaching and learning. Teachers cannot pay individual attention to many students which is a great psychological and social need of students.Outdated Syllabus is real problem for students in Pakistan. Curriculum and the syllabus in any educational institution is the backbone of its worth and success and that is one thing which should not be stagnant and should vary according to the changing time and advancement of the modern world. Pakistan is facing one of the core problems of education in the country and behind this problem the foundations are being laid by the outdated and old traditional syllabus which is being taught to the students.The biggest threatening fact in the educational system of Pakistan is that it has been unchanged since several decades and that will not be wrong or exaggerated if said that the syllabus which is being taught to the students today is the same as it was being taught to their parents or even grandparents which is the real point of concern.The students and the people are fed up of following the same traditional and outdated syllabus which has so significant impact on the grooming of the students and that is why majority of the students are either quitting there education or they are switching to the other educational systems which includes the Cambridge educational system which has ultimately made the national system of education more weaker and less important.Illiteracy has terrible effects on society. The most important effect of illiteracy on society is that it works as an inhibitor. That is to say the more illiterate people there are in a country, the harder it will be for the country to develop.Punjab Governor Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar promulgated on Tuesday evening the ordinance to make necessary provisions for the implementation of Article 25-A, which was inserted in the Constitution in 2010 binding the state to provide free and compulsory education to children aged 5-16 years. Since 2010, the Punjab government was supposed to legislate and provide free and compulsory education to children.The governor has now promulgated the ordinance as Punjab Assembly is not in session and he was satisfied with the existing circumstances making it necessary to take action.The ordinance has repealed the Punjab Compulsory Primary Education Act 1994, and declared that all such laws be brought into conformity with the scheme and objectives of this ordinance within five years.According to a copy of the ordinance obtained by Dawn, every child has a right to free and compulsory education from Class-I to X, non-formal education, vocational education or a combination of all considering the needs, capability and age so as to ensure completion of education.It states that a child or parent shall not be liable to pay any fee or charges or expenses for completing education in a school owned or controlled by the government or local authority.But despite having some of the worst education indicators in the world, Pakistan is making slow progress in educating its population, including girls, according to Unesco’s director in Pakistan, Dr Kozue Kay Nagata.”For this noble cause to educate 57 million illiterates including 24 million out of school children, we are striving day and night with a mission to make Pakistan a literate society,” the NCHD chairperson said at the walk.Although provincial governments are providing free education to some extent but that is clearly not enough to equip all the children with the treasures of knowledge. They provide free education up to primary level and that is also limited to some areas.Government should make the acquiring of primary education as compulsory on every child in the province, in such cases those 4.6 million children which are still not a part of any educational institutions will be able to play their role and contribute in improving the literacy rate. I want to propose a solution to increase the literacy rate in Pakistan. The first thing a government could do is to increase the budget which is to be allocated towards education. The second thing is hiring or employing people with skills on key posts so that they could give good education. The third thing is to create awareness amongst people about the importance of education and the urgency to learn so that we could compete with the world. The last and foremost thing is to show the connection between Islam and education. Most people in Pakistan are Muslims and they are still unaware of the fact that Islam promotes education. There is an even when Hazrat Muhammad (PBUH) said that he would set free the prisoners who would teach Muslims. By this we can seek to comprehend to what degree education is importance in Islam. Education plays a pivotal role in the development of a nation, as it contributes to the development of human capital. Majority of economists believes that a substantial proportion of robust economic growth seen in western hemisphere is explained by their sophisticated education system.Our nation needs education more than anything in this world. We are currently on a constant threat of terrorism which can only come to an end when the thought process of people will change and that can be possible through proper education. An illiterate person will never think straight and will always find shortcuts to earn money resulting in higher crime rates and terrorism. Unemployment makes a person do unreasonable things not just in Pakistan, but anywhere across the world.Protecting schools from extremists today will help to stem the rise of extremism tomorrow. Indeed, given the contribution of ignorance, lack of choice, and socioeconomic deprivation to the rise of extremism in parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan, ensuring that future generations have better education, improved capabilities, and more opportunities will ensure that the next generation will not become easy prey for terrorist organizations.In addition to the risk that a few would be tempted by extremism is the certainty that, if we fail to meet our commitment to universal education, millions of children would be relegated to a life of poverty and struggle, with their hopes, dreams, and potential squandered, undermining the country’s development potential. More than half of Pakistan’s population is under the age of 25; theirs is the generation with the potential to drive progress and prosperity in the country – if, of course, they receive the education they deserve.